Its really easy to google "gas octane test" and find old poprod ore hotrod magazine tests when you still could get 100 octane gas. and see what octane does to advance timing needed. NASCAR engine 101 on you tube is very informative on the subject also.
Higher octane gas like 100+ in a engine with 9:1 something static comp is a waste of power/time consuming combustion
higher octane burns slower, to gain near the same power with 104 octan as with say 98 0ctane for an engine like dis you have to advance the timing like to maby45¤ advance.
Every Engine has its on ideal crank angel maximum combustion pressure / degree depended on stroke / rod ratio etc. that's the spot we are looking fore to hit.
As mentioned here before me, a richer fuel/ai mixture ( more / closer to each other fuel particles will burn faster and vice vers with a leaner mix,
and to that dynamic combustion pressure difference/ throttle openings rpm/ overlap hot gases situations
Assuming (You don't win races assuming) all is god with ignition system and plugs intake carb and so on. (Will try to get dis understandably )
AT WOT and just WOT the engine wants less advance at peak torque ( cylinder max packed with fuelmix faster burn ) than peak power and should have a slop on approx 1¤ advance/1000 rpm or so depended up on engine type up to peak rpm ( less VE ) fore max power.
In Dyno test you almost never read more than " it made max power at that advance " then it coms in to play the vehicle it self
light,heavy auto/ manual gearing converter gforces on intake tract and carb ( go in to youtube BLP N&S test jmarkaudio) something and look watt happens to fuel in carb bowl up on dragrace launches and figure if that's altering you jetting / E bleed calibration compared to dyno pulls )
Bill Jenkins was the first ( I belief ) to have a high gear retard in his 327 S/S chevy II manuel trans. The trick was to have a 42-44 advance ( as i recall ) launching the car to make it rev faster and then retard to 38( ore watt ever it was) in higher gears when the engine was loaded and working hard fore best power. Combustion it self takes the same amount of time provided the same fuel air mix and so on , piston speed goes up in square by rpm ( i think it was, my old beat up brain cant remember as much as i want to ) Any way the important ting to remember is like Blykins seas
GO FORE LEAST ADVANCE TIMING TO MAX POWER not max advance to max power A light car low gear high stall conv. can take a faster advance curve than the opposite combo. Then we have the cruising advance situation all ready mention several times last week come in to play
Phuu